52. The Organic Instagram Strategy That Made Me Thousands (Without a Single Email!)
This episode kicks off a powerful four-part series on how to make more money on Instagram with your organic content. No paid ads required!
If you’ve ever felt stuck, uninspired, or overwhelmed by Instagram marketing, this is for you. I’m pulling back the curtain on my Organic Content Funnel, the exact strategy I use to consistently attract clients and keep my business thriving—without being glued to my phone 24/7.
You’ll walk away from this episode with a simple, clear roadmap to transform your content strategy and start getting seen and paid for your soul-led work.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
[00:00] The #1 Instagram Myth Busted – Why your follower count is NOT the reason you're not making sales.
[02:24] My Client’s Success Story – How one coach landed her first $1,100 sale with just 112 followers.
[05:38] My Own Business Breakthrough – How I sold out my private coaching spots without sending a single email.
[07:34] The Long Game Mindset – Why Instagram isn’t an overnight success game—and what to do instead.
[09:57] The Organic Content Funnel Explained – The 3 stages every Instagram post should follow.
[12:45] Attracting Your Ideal Clients – The secret to scroll-stopping content that draws in ready-to-buy customers.
[15:30] The Nurture Phase – How to build trust, credibility, and engagement so people WANT to buy from you.
[17:23] How to Convert Followers into Buyers – The missing link most business owners overlook.
[20:13] The Biggest Selling Mistake – Are you making this one major Instagram sales mistake?
[26:24] 3 Types of Content That Sell for You – What to post this week to start attracting paying clients.
Key Takeaways
Your follower count does NOT determine your sales. A strategic content funnel is what drives revenue.
Instagram is a long game. If you’re giving up after a month, you’re missing the magic of consistency.
Engagement ≠ Sales. Without a clear content funnel, you’re just entertaining—not converting.
Your content should do the heavy lifting for you. Focus on attracting, nurturing, and converting with every post.
Links Mentioned in This Episode:
Coming Next Week: I’m breaking down the exact types of content that attract ready-to-buy clients. Make sure you're subscribed so you don’t miss it!
A Truth You Need to Hear:
"A funny Reel might get likes, but likes don’t pay the bills. A strategic content funnel? That’s what turns followers into paying clients."
S3 Ep52 Transcript: The Organic Instagram Strategy That Made Me Thousands (Without a Single Email!)
00:00
Today we're kicking off a four-part series on how to make more money on Instagram with your organic content. That's right, no paid ads required. We're gonna do this without feeling overwhelmed, second guessing ourselves, or being glued to our phones 24 seven. So if you've ever wanted to show up on Instagram and sell, but you found yourself feeling frozen, stuck, or uninspired, this is for you.
00:28
I break it all down in the simplest, most effective way possible so you can walk away from this series feeling clear, confident, and ready to get seen and paid for your soul work. Let's do this. Welcome to Strut It, a podcast about creating bold visibility on social media with zero apologies.
00:53
I'm Elizabeth Marberry, your host and Instagram marketing coach. I help small business owners get seen on Instagram and monetize their offers so they can make more money doing their sole-led work. If you're tired of spinning your wheels on Instagram and you're seeking simple, proven Instagram marketing strategies that actually work, you're in the right place. Let's dive in.
01:23
Welcome back to Strut It. I'm your hostess with the mostest, Elizabeth Marberry. I am so thrilled that you pulled up and you are hanging out with me today. I'm coming in hot with a client win. This literally just happened and I had to share it with you. One of my private clients in my 30 day private mentorship program, it's called InstaGrowth and it's a really great first step into what it's like to have me as your private mentor.
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Anywho, she is a business coach for personal stylists and while she's a very successful stylist and she's grown her brand to six figures, this coaching business is very new to her. It's been in her heart for years and she's been called to do this, but it wasn't until she hired me and we really just put the pedal to the metal of putting together her offer, putting together a really clear customer journey.
02:24
and helping her to understand how to use her organic content on Instagram to drive those qualified leads into her coaching business. And I wanna celebrate that today, only about 20 days into our mentorship together, she closed her first private client. This was an $1,100 sale that she closed. I wanna highlight this because she only has 112
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followers on Instagram. And while she's had this Instagram account for a while, it was dormant until about 20 days ago when she hired me and we started to really pour fuel on this fire of getting her coaching business out there. And so I wanted to share this story with you because many business owners I talked to have this story going that the problem they have as to why their Instagram is not working for their business is their low follower account. And that's often not
03:21
the case. The problem is that your content is not working strategically for you to act like a magnet to attract those soulmate clients to your business. And so part of what I work on with my clients and my private mentorship containers is teaching them how to create that content that is going to drive actual leads and sales for their business. And I get into the strategy of, okay, now I have this
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person who's interested, now what do I do? Many business owners are not clear on their customer journey and that's why Instagram is not working for them. So I had to share that win of my client, she's doing great and I'm so passionate about helping business owners really step into their power and purpose because my client Paula, she's had this vision for so long and she was a little scared, you know, like well she's been really successful and she knows her stuff.
04:17
It's often scary when you're stepping into a new expansion for yourself, your business, you're positioning yourself in a new way publicly. And I'm so happy she trusted me to be her mentor. If you're curious about my private mentorship programs, the next step is to apply for a free Instagram breakthrough call with me. You can DM me the word apply, A-P-P-L-Y on Instagram. Make sure you're already following me so I get that message. And my little robot assistant will send you over an application.
04:47
and then you and I will hop on a complimentary call so I can learn more about you, your business, your goals, and if I'm the right person to support you, then I may invite you into one of my coaching containers. And if I'm not the right person, I absolutely will tell you and I will point you in the right direction. So if you know that you are done going it alone in 2025 and you're ready to pour some fuel on your fire and get Instagram really driving leads and sales for your business this year.
05:15
I would love to hop on a free call with you. I couldn't have planned it better. That client win leads into this four part series I'm kicking off about how to create an organic content funnel for your business using Instagram. And I'm gonna really pull back the curtain as to how I have done this in both of my businesses.
05:38
My goal is always to shortcut your learning curve. It's taken me six years of really trying to understand how to play this game of Instagram. And my goal is to really shortcut that for you so you can get your aha moments. You can go walk away from this episode and take action right away. I can't wait to hear from you and see how you're gonna go and implement all of the information I have for you in this series. As I'm recording this, it is middle of
06:07
February and I have already sold out all of my private coaching spots this month. And I had this moment today where I realized I had not sent one email to my list inviting them into my private coaching offers. So I had sold out my private coaching offers without sending one email.
06:37
to my list, pitching them on my offer. This feels like a whole new level of operating as a business. And the first thing I wanna tell you about this is that this didn't happen overnight. I didn't just start my coaching business a month ago or six months ago or even 12 months ago for this to occur. I always want to set really realistic claims on my show and my content.
07:06
because I can't handle the whole clickbait, just inauthentic content that's out there that really paints this unrealistic expectation for people and then they buy into it and then they're very disappointed. So the first thing I wanna say as to, okay, how did I do this? How did I sell out my offers in a month without sending one email? I have been planting so many seeds over the last 18 months. This was not an overnight success.
07:34
but rather a result of being relentless in how I've shown up online promoting what I do and coming from a place of service with my content. I've also really dialed in my customer journey. It's very simple. I love simple. Any kind of business model that's complex is such a turnoff for me. I need it to be simple and scalable. And I've really just dialed all of that in.
08:00
In order for that to happen, it's taken time. I've invested in mentors, I've invested hundreds of hours in refining my messaging and seeing what works and what doesn't. So we're gonna get into some really specific things you can do today and I want you to look at yourself in the mirror and say, okay, how long have I actually been going full force with my business, with my product or service? Because many business owners I talk to,
08:30
They're impatient and they're like, Elizabeth, I've been doing what you've said for like a month and I'm not seeing results. And I'm like, oh sister, it takes longer than a month. So tip number one is you have to be in this for the long game. Instagram is absolutely a lead generating machine that can work for your business 24 seven and to get it working.
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for your business, it's going to take some time to get the machine going. So you have to make a decision, is Instagram where you want to focus a large part of your social media marketing efforts on. If you're trying to go all in on Instagram and go all in on YouTube and go all in on TikTok, it's gonna take you a lot longer than if you just picked one platform and you went all.
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in on it. So tip number two is I want you to decide what is the one platform. Right now I'm talking about a short form platform, short form video, meaning TikTok, Instagram, Facebook reels, YouTube. But what is one platform, one place where you are ready to grow and focus most of your efforts? I would not be where I'm at right now if I was just
09:57
putting 20% here and 20% there and 20% over here. I have been laser focused on two channels, Instagram and my podcast. This podcast that you're listening to. These are the two key pieces of my organic content funnel. I don't have 10 different key pieces. I have two key pieces. So I want you to pause for a moment. I want you to think about where is your focus?
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for short form content. And then where would your focus be if you were focusing on long form content? For the purpose of today, we are gonna focus on Instagram and we are gonna focus on that shorter form content. Now with Instagram, you can do an Instagram Live. You can go live on Instagram for 60 minutes. In fact, I've been hearing lately of a lot of podcasters who are doing...
10:53
There are podcasts live on Instagram. I might start doing that soon. So you can use Instagram as a longer form content vehicle, but most of what I'm gonna be talking about today is that shorter form content. All right, step one, you have the mindset. Elizabeth, I'm in this for the long haul. I'm an entrepreneur. I'm a small business owner. I am here to play the long game. Step two, I've decided
11:22
Yes, Instagram is my spot. I know my ideal clients are on there. They're hanging out there, they're consuming content, they're researching their products and services. Instagram is like our new Google right now. So yes, Elizabeth, I have decided to go all in on Instagram. Fabulous. All right, let's move into step three. I'm gonna teach you what exactly is an organic content funnel.
11:49
so you can start to think about how this would apply to your business. And this is really important because so many business owners spend hours creating content, posting consistently, and yet when they actually try to sell, crickets. Their audience loves their content but isn't buying. Why? Because engagement does not equal conversions. You need a real strategy, one that nurtures.
12:17
pre-sells and seamlessly moves people into your paid offers. And that's what an organic content funnel does. So let's talk about what that actually looks like. So an organic content funnel is a content strategy designed to do the heavy lifting of selling for you. So instead of randomly posting and hoping for the best, every piece of content you put out there,
12:45
has a purpose, either attracting new people, nurturing your audience, or leading them to a sale, or maybe you have one piece of content that does all three of those things. So you can think of the funnel just like an upside down triangle. Think of it as instead of creating content just to post something, you are really thinking about how you're gonna move people down.
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from the top of your funnel all the way down to the bottom. So the top of your funnel, Instagram works as the top of your funnel. It's where you're gonna reach the most people. And then as you're clear on your customer journey, they're gonna move down the steps and the funnel, you can imagine this upside down triangle, it's getting narrower and narrower as we go down. So one, you're attracting clients, right? You're pulling in
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your ideal clients with content that speaks directly to their pain points and desires. So part of why your content may not be converting for you is probably because you're not being specific enough, you're going way too wide, or you haven't refined your messaging enough and you sound like everyone else who does what you do. So you have to really get clear on
14:08
your specific messaging and really what's king and what's working on Instagram right now is the specifics. So it used to work to be a little more general like five ways to grow your Instagram following. That is not converting as well on Instagram right now because that statement is too general. But what if I made a post and I said, here's how I grew 20K followers in 30 days.
14:36
with no paid ads. You can hear how that is so much more specific and so much more compelling. Now, which video are you gonna wanna watch? You're gonna watch the one that is more specific. With my clients right now, I've been encouraging them to put numbers in their hooks. The more specific you can be, the better. So instead of here's how you know it's time to buy your next home, you could say, here's
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five questions to ask yourself before you consider buying your next home. You can hear how that's even more specific and it's going to draw people in. The second step of a funnel is nurturing. So people have already followed you, they know who you are, and now it's the time where you are going to build trust. You're going to really build that authority.
15:30
And most importantly, this is where you build connection with your audience through storytelling, through educational or informational content, and engagement-based content, meaning content that gets them into conversation with you. One thing to ask yourself is, is my content a dialogue? Is my content a monologue or is it a conversation? Am I?
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asking questions, am I invoking responses from my audience? Or is it just me up on a stage doing a performance and it's crickets in the audience? You want to be strategic about creating content that people are going to have a reaction to. They're gonna be moved to like it or comment on it or it's so relatable or so helpful that they can't help but share it.
16:29
One of my private clients right now is a real estate agent and she created a real the other day that was so relatable to what my best friend is going through right now. It was a meme and it was Jim Carrey doing this happy dance. And it was like that feeling of when you made an offer, it was accepted and now you're going to move into your dream home in 30 days. And I literally sent it to my best friend who just did that. She just put in an offer and she's going to move into her dream house in about 30 days.
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That's what I mean about really specific content that is activating your ideal client to the point where they're gonna share it with someone else who is going to relate to your content. And the more that your content gets shares, of course, that means that your business is gonna get in front of more people. So one, you're attracting people into your sphere, you can't make money if people don't know you exist. Step two,
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They're following you, now you're nurturing them, you're building that trust, authority and connection. Step three is conversion. When you make an offer, your audience is already primed and excited to buy because they already know that you are the expert in that space. They like you, they like your personality, they like your values, they like your essence, right? Like there's a lot of different social media marketing mentors and coaches out there, but the people who like working with me,
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They resonate with my energy. They resonate with how I teach things, how I break things down. And same is true for you. It's not that your business is just this one of a kind thing. It's that you are the one of a kind thing. And the more that you can bring that essence of your personality and make your brand come to life, show the face behind the brand, you're gonna sell more of your products and services. So this month, when I sold out my private coaching spots,
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I didn't wake up one day and suddenly start selling. I had been strategically seeding my offer for weeks through my stories, through my Instagram reels, through my podcasts, through my speaking engagements. And that builds demand and that establishes me as an expert. So by the time I finally have openings and I even just open myself up to the universe energetically, those people really start to...
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come into my sphere because I'm putting myself in rooms with people who want what I can offer, whether that's a virtual room on Instagram, or I'm speaking on a stage, or I'm in your earbuds right now with my podcast. But as you are here with me, it's building our relationship. If you're gonna listen to me speak for 20 minutes, you probably trust that I have an idea of what I'm talking about, right?
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So you get to do this with your content. And the key is those seeds, those little seeds that you plant every single day. So let's say for you, you're like, okay, Elizabeth, I'm so busy. I can only do three high quality reels every week that really serve my Dell client because they take me a long time. But maybe for you, that means, okay, I'm gonna commit to showing up in my story five days a week, just simply talking about what I do.
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and how I help people and giving people a behind the scenes look and mentioning my offers. I can't tell you how many times I've made sales from people who are like, okay, wait, I heard you talking about this thing. Like, what is that? Without me even doing a hard call to action of, if you want to join my program, you know, here's the link, which you can totally do that too, by the way. I'm not saying you can't do that. But the more you can just talk.
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publicly about what you do, the more successful you will be in your business. So that is your organic content funnel. Attract, Nurture, and Convert. And your Instagram content can do all three of those things. So you could have a Reel, for example. Reels are a great way to reach people who don't already follow you. So right there, that checks off the Attract box.
20:40
The real can be educational or inspiring or move me to tears or maybe it's just really entertaining and it's making me laugh. That's step number two. That's the nurturing phase because you're nurturing that relationship with me. So let's say I've already been following you and I see that I'm like, oh my gosh, I love Shannon. She is so great. Every time I see her face pop up on my feed, I'm going to stop scrolling. I love to hear what she has to say. So that's nurturing.
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And then the conversion piece, same thing, maybe that same reel that attracted those new followers in, that's nurturing your relationship with your current followers, has a killer call to action to grab your freebie in the caption, right? Anyone who's reading the actual caption of your post, they're your biggest fans, okay? They are ready to go. So maybe you have a really value-packed caption with a call to action for them to grab your freebie, for example.
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That's an example of one piece of content, one reel doing all three of those things. So don't stress too much about, okay, is this reel gonna attract new followers or is this one gonna nurture my followers? Honestly, 95% of the content I make can do all three of those things. So you don't have to overthink this, but that's the beauty of Instagram is these features really make our brands three dimensional. They make us pop off the page.
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And so you can essentially bring people through your funnel with one piece of strategic content. Now I wanna get into the biggest mistake business owners make when selling on social media. And that is this, treating social media like a billboard instead of a relationship building tool. So the biggest mistake I see is that people either never sell, like you literally never sell, you never talk about what you do, except super, super passively.
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or you only sell. Like I go to your page and it's like this commercial, ew. So you're either stuck in give, give, give cycle, but really never making an offer, or you're hitting your audience all the time with constant promo, and you're wondering why nobody's buying. So here's the truth. If your audience isn't buying, it's not because they don't want what you offer. It's because they're not primed.
23:01
to buy it yet and that is a content problem. That shows that you have a little hiccup in your content strategy and no need to panic, I'm here to help you, but you can't make changes until you know what the problem is, right? So engagement does not necessarily equal conversions. We spend a lot of time and energy obsessing over likes and views and comments and what I always bring by my business owner clients back to is,
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How is this moving the needle for your business? Because I don't know about you, I'm not here to just like give you give and not receive. I have food to put on the table. I have two children to raise, okay? So yes, do I show up from a place of service? 100% and I am here to make money. I am here to build the life that I want, the lifestyle that I dream of for myself and for my family. So a like does not mean that someone's ready to work with you.
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A funny reel doesn't mean that they're gonna trust you as a mentor. So if you're just chasing views and you're not building a strategic customer journey, you're missing out on sales. So the fix for this is being strategic in your content. And it's as simple as this. Your content needs to help your ideal customer feel seen, heard, or helped by your content. If you can do that day after day.
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showing up consistently month after month. When you are ready to open the doors or you're ready to drop a link in front of them, they will be primed to buy. And I wanna use this podcast as an example. If I showed up here and I was teaching all these free strategies, which I do, I practice zero gatekeeping in this podcast and I get so much feedback from people, oh my gosh, Elizabeth, I love binging your podcast. It's so great.
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But what if I did this podcast and I never told you about how to work with me? Or what if I did this podcast and the whole podcast, 90% of it was me selling, and then I gave you a tip or two that didn't really work? That strategy would not work. That's basically what I see a lot of business owners doing on Instagram right now, and they're wondering why it's not working for them. So I want you to think about what I do in this podcast. I show up.
25:27
I teach, I serve, I help. I am honest about my life as a business owner and entrepreneur and mother of two and all these things that I'm juggling. And I'm building that connection. I am establishing myself as an authority in this space because I show up every single week sharing with you exactly what's working on Instagram and what's not right now for small business owners and creative entrepreneurs. And then...
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I make an invitation and I say, hey, if you're feeling stuck or you need help, I'm here. And here's exactly a next step you can take with me. That's exactly what you need to be doing on Instagram. That's why you need to be strategic about the content that you're posting. So I wanna give you three types of content that build trust and sell for you. So you can walk away with some clear content ideas that you can implement this week.
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Number one, authority content. I want you to show your expertise. I want you to own your power, own your voice, especially women. I see we dim our lights. We're like, oh, well, I don't know, I don't know. Stop I don't knowing yourself. And I want you to stand up taller and I want you to own your experience. I want you to own your voice and your power. And I want you to teach something. Do you need to teach a hundred things? Absolutely not. I want you to pick one pain point.
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of your ideal client and one solution, tip or strategy that you can give them. And I want you to create a reel with that information in it this week. So authority content, number two, connection content. This is where you're gonna make your audience feel seen. I want you to show your personality and I want you to share stories or behind the scenes. So I want you to think of something that you are currently struggling with or
27:19
Maybe you were struggling with it at the beginning of your journey where your current customer is residing. Oftentimes our current customer or client is a few years behind us and we don't even realize how ahead we are. And I don't mean like above them, I just mean in our knowledge base. That's why our product or service is a solution for them is we have designed a better mousetrap, right? Or we have a program that's gonna help shortcut their learning curve so they can have better results.
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So if you can create some connection content about where you were when you first started and then where you are now, that will help your ideal client feel seen. That's one idea. Another way of doing this connection content is just behind the scenes. Like I did today, I went on my stories and I said, hi, I'm working from the library today. I get focused work here. I love doing that.
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Here's what I'm up to. And just kind of, you know, being a person, being a human, and allowing people to see the different sides of my personality, not just talking about my work, but like, oh gosh, Elizabeth loves to go to the library. I love the library too, like so fun. I can't tell you how many times I'll just share like a random thing I'm doing in my day. And that's the piece of content that people latch onto. Because people want to connect with other people.
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The third piece of content I want you to focus on is social proof and results. So I want you to prove that your methods work by showcasing real client wins. Just like I started this podcast, I shared with you a real client win and transformation. And...
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that could be, you know, sharing screenshots of a DM from a happy client, or maybe it's a screenshot of a testimonial. My favorite is when you can tell a story with the testimonial, like behind the scenes of your customer journey, whether that's literally physically like in person, if you are a physical shop, or if you're an online business, like what does that look like? Where is your client starting? And what transformation do they experience as a result of your
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coaching program or your service. Where were they before and where are they now? So when people feel connected to you and trust your expertise and see proof that your methods work, they're way more likely to slide into your DMs when they're ready to invest. To wrap this up, when you have a content funnel working for you, you're never scrambling for clients at the last minute. And instead of throwing random content at the wall and hoping for sales, you're following a simple system.
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that keeps your audience engaged and primed to buy without feeling salesy or being glued to Instagram 24 seven because who has time for that? This strategy completely changed everything for me and instead of feeling like I had to sell all the time, I built a content funnel that does the selling for me. If you want your content to start working for you, I would love to help you map out your own organic content.
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funnel and that's something I can absolutely help you lay the foundation for in my Instagram 30-day private mentorship program. If you are interested in receiving deeper support on this journey don't forget to DM me the word apply a-p-p-l-y and we'll hop on a free Instagram breakthrough call after you submit an application and if I'm the right person to support you we will talk next steps and if not you know I'll hook you up with the right person.
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I am cheering you on. I can't wait to see what you go and create this week. And make sure you're subscribed to the show because next week I'm breaking down the exact types of content that attract ready to buy clients. So make sure you're subscribed so you do not miss it. We're gonna keep going deeper and deeper as we move into the series. So you can walk away with tangible tips and strategies you can implement right now in your business.
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I'm super pumped and I cannot wait to strut it with you next week. Thank you for listening to strut it. If you're ready to start leveraging Instagram to grow your business, then you're going to want to grab my free monetize your IG guide where you'll learn seven simple and proven ways to finally make money on Instagram. You can grab your guide at elizabethmarberry.com slash freebies to get my monetize your IG guide. If you got some incredible value from today's episode, be sure to leave a review and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. And I cannot wait to start it with you again next week.